jon foster demo

so jon foster's in town and he gave us a demo in painting yesterday. he started with a picture of nicola tesla and a pile of oil paints.




first he showed us the three ways he likes to start a painting. (the first two pictures.)































then he started on his final painting.














(it was pink shirt day at the illustration academy by the way.)





























all in all the demo was about two and a half hours long and the pain in my butt from sitting on a cement floor was well worth getting to see my favorite artist do what he does best.


(those are squeegee marks in the background on the left side.)






jon's palette.

after the demo, i promptly went out and tried to buy all of the paints that jon said he uses.

jon is a really great guy and i wish he was at the academy for more than a week. it was his work that inspired me to be an illustrator in the first place and it's amazing to get his input on the pieces that i am creating.

it's great seeing your hero do what it is that makes him or her your hero. sterling hundley is also here at the academy and seeing him do demos of his actual illustrations is a fantastic thing.

illustration academy: project one

the first project for the illustration academy this year was given to us last monday by mark english. the project was to create a scene of florida using only flat shapes and colors and no lines. so here it is. could been better i guess. acrylic and i do not see eye to eye. later in the week i found out i could have probably done it in oils and then at least the color problems would have been fixed. oh well.

our next project was given to us by jon foster.
(one of my favorite artists since before i can remember) our mission is to do a portrait of a character from literature showing an emotion. i chose quasimoto of the hunchback of notre dame.
jon's giving a demo tomorrow (hopefully oil painting) and if it is, i'll probably have pictures up soon.

the illustration academy

i am currently at the illustration academy at ringling in sarasota florida, though i haven't finished the first project yet.
in the spring, i worked at target overnights and tried to take the opportunities on my breaks to draw in the break room. i decided that i was going to draw the coat rack every night. i only ended up drawing it two times but i really liked the results.

i'll post week one's illustration project as soon as i finish it.